Ahead of the two-leg A-League Women semi-finals kicking off this weekend, the competition confirmed that 284,551 people had come through the turnstiles so far in the 2023-24 season, making it "the most-attended season of any women's sport in Australian history".

The extraordinary achievement set a new benchmark for women's sport in the nation, and demonstrated the increasing value of the A-League Women with its popularity snowballing following the World Cup.

The obvious potential to build on that momentum is just one reason the 'Save Canberra United' fan group are still fighting to keep their club in the A-League Women next season.

"It's just showing the rise and rise of women's football and for Canberra to miss out on that would be absolutely crazy," the fan group's spokesperson Sue Read said.

"We would be robbing the community of that experience.

"We've seen such a huge shift, and now that they've seen the Matildas, visibility is everything.

"People love the product, they connect with the players, they want to see it, but they need the opportunity to see it."

Significant financial pressures from the last few A-League seasons put Capital Football in a difficult position to keep Canberra United alive next season without jeopardising their community soccer operations.

Canberra's A-League Men bid is yet to take over the women's team's operation from Capital Football as initially planned. However, rumours have been swirling the bid group is considering putting its men's ambitions on hold in the short-term to focus on operating the women's team next season.

Time is running out - if it hasn't expired already - on the hopes of having a Canberra team in the men's competition for the 2024-25 campaign given the start of the season is just six months away.

Some are still holding out hope that a decision in the coming days or weeks would still give the franchise enough time to get up and running for the men's competition.

But it is appearing increasingly likely the women's team will be the focus for next season given it is already set up, has an established fan base and requires less capital to get going, before adding a men's team to the A-League portfolio.

In the interim, Read and the Save Canberra United group continue their fundraising efforts. As of Tuesday, more than $71,500 had been donated to their fundraising webpage vowing to put the money directly toward United.

While still not quite reaching the fundraiser's lofty $300,000 goal - the amount Capital Football has indicated is the shortfall to keep the team running next season - the fan group are still seeing the total increase.

And it was boosted this week by a donation from former Matilda, Football Australia board member and FIFA executive, Moya Dodd.

"Moya is among the Matildas alumni and she's always been very supportive of football," Read said.

Read said the group continue to work with Capital Football, and have positive dialogue with the ACT government and other political parties in the territory on how best to support United going forward. The group is also aiming to launch some brand new fundraising events and initiatives soon after securing non-for-profit status.